Whether you’re starting a small business for the first time and you’vehired employees or you have received a promotion that places you in a management, the transition to manager can be challenging. Suddenly, you’re one of “them” and the same people who used to hang out at the lunch table with you are complaining about you to each other. How do you make a successful transition from employee to manager? It can be challenging. A few tips:
* You’ll have to come to the painful realization that you won’t be able to go back to being pals at the water cooler. However, you can, and should, let the people you are managing know that you are willing to listen to their concerns and that you are all in this together.
* Never gossip with former co-workers that you now manage about other co-workers or complain to them about decisions from the boss. They won’t respect you for it and office morale will be lowered. However, you should let all of your employees know that you will be happy to provide clarification on unclear policies or find out why certain policies were implemented.
* Take classes and go to seminars for managers and administrators. Being in management is very different from being an employee and training will help you speed up the learning process.
Originally posted on April 21, 2006 @ 7:20 am